The second of four planned communities built by William Levitt, Levittown, Pennsylvania, offered the prototypical postwar suburban experience, complete with pools, schools, and shopping centers. And as we can see from this street scene taken during a Levittown open house from Temple University’s online photo archive, the concept proved alluring for many in the Philadelphia area. What do you see here?

13 Responses to “Levittown, Pennsylvania, 1950s”

Ah Levittown–“Build it and they will come”. What a booming project those developments were! The American dream was within their grasp, and people were ready to buy! Good bye landlord!
Is that a `39 Buick on the left closest to the camera? If so its about the oldest car pictured. Must be about 1951; the newest cars seen are the black Buick up close and a couple `51 Fords I see parked.

What strikes me first is that, except for the 1950 Buick Riviera Sedan and the 1950 Dodge Coronet (with whitewalls!), all of the cars look pretty low-end. I guess that’s the market Levittown was targeting — working people who could finally own a home in the “country.”

New cars weren’t made during the war, as materials and plants were re-directed to war work. After the war there were shortages of rubber and other materials and it took a long time to catch up. I know of one family that ordered a new Buick before the war, but Pearl Harbor came before the car. Several months after the war, the company called and said their car was arriving soon — the dealership was still filling pre-war orders! Also, people had other priorities — like where to live, what to do for a living, saving for the children they wanted to have, etc. Most of these people, had grown up during the Depression and come from families that had owned only one or two cars that they drove till they fell apart, and didn’t think they needed brand new cars every few years, as we do now. When I was born in 1950, my parents were still driving an old Studebaker and saving for a down payment on a house — and we weren’t poor, just frugal in a way people no longer are.

I’ve only heard about Levitttown since I’m a Nevada born and Utah raised guy but it sounds interesting.
It does look like this picture was almost posed or staged–most of the cars are gray or black etc.
Great photo, though!

Could be just the black and white image doesn’t give a good idea of what the colors are. But I’ve seen pictures of my father’s family during this time and most of the cars are fairly mundane, I think they just didn’t go for flashy colors in your average family sedan. This is in a sense staged, since they’re showing a Levitt home and want publicity shots showing a massive amount of people, but I think this is actually how it looked.